May 1st - Feast of Saint Joseph the Worker Mary’s Husband, the Carpenter Leo XIII wrote, "Joseph, of royal descent, united in marriage with the most sublime and saintly of women, the putative father of [...] from spending a large part of His life on manual work. "This is the carpenter, surely, the son of Mary...?" Mark 6:3. (Leo XIII, Rerum Novarum, 1891).
April 20 - Our Lady of Sorrows (Quito, Spain) The Sweet Fruitfulness of Mary’s Womb Let us linger on the association between the Blessed Virgin and honey that led Hildegard of Bingen to write, in a letter
April 23 - Our Lady of the Penha (Brazil) Saved by a Fervent “Hail Mary” (I) We had embarked on a mission with a couple of helicopters on a frigate, when we suddenly discovered the absence of a crew member [...] Heaven. So he addressed a fervent prayer to the Blessed Virgin and silently prayed in his heart a “Hail Mary”.
April 24 - Our Lady of Lujan (Argentina) Saved by a Fervent “Hail Mary” (II) As he murmured the last words of his humble prayer his eye was attracted to a small spot between two waves. With little conviction
April 26 - Our Lady of Perpetual Help given to Redemptorists’ Church (Rome, 1886) Mary, for Jesus My Redeemer, Make My Heart White like a Lily (II) O Blessed Virgin, my tender Mother, for Jesus my Redeemer
April 25 - Dedication of the Lower Holy Chapel of Paris in honor of Our Lady (France, 1248) Mary, for Jesus My Redeemer, Make My Heart White like a Lily (I) O Blessed Virgin, my tender Mother, for Jesus
March 3 - Fourteenth Apparition at Lourdes (France, 1858) Unconditional Commitment with Mary Bernadette Soubirous is the saint of Lourdes … the saint of penance… the saint of poverty. Our Lady’s child [...] commitment. “I do not promise to make you happy in this world, but in the next”…The happiness that Mary promised to Bernadette was not only for life after death. It is the happiness experienced by all those
March 26 - Sinaxis of the Archangel Gabriel, Byzantine On Mary’s Virginity and Giving Birth People are sometimes troubled by the silence of St Mark's Gospel and the New Testament Epistles about Jesus' [...] His Incarnation to His Passover. St Ignatius of Antioch already bears witness to this connection: “Mary's virginity and giving birth, and even the Lord's death escaped the notice of the prince of this world:
March 23 - Our Lady of Victory of Lepanto (Hungary, 1716) Mary and the Holy Spirit At the Annunciation, Mary who was already full of grace, became the residence of the Holy Spirit in a very special way: [...] of the body and the heart of the Son of God in Mary, in the same way the Spirit formed Christ in the new Church. Again, in the same way still He gave Mary the momentum to set off and visit her cousin Elizabeth [...] the Most High. She is the Ark of the Covenant who carries in her womb the Son of God (Lk 1: 26-38). Mary’s exemplary experience of hearing God’s Word in the Spirit at the time of the Annunciation reminds
March 29 - Apparition of Our Lady to St Bonnet (7th C.) Mary’s Tears (I) The tears of the Mother of Sorrows fill the Scriptures and flow down across the centuries. All of the weeping mothers, widows and [...] she is there weeping too, because all tears belong to her as the Empress of Beatitude and Love. Mary’s tears are the very Blood of Jesus Christ, but differently shed, just as her compassion was a sort
